Class of 2024: Hannah Lohner explores the roots of oral health

By Amelia Heymann

Hannah Lohner has always been interested in … teeth.

"I wanted to be a dentist when I grew up when I was younger, so I was already interested in the mouth and teeth and everything to do with it," said the native of Big Island, which is actually a small-town spot near Lynchburg.

But Lohner's introduction to research as a Virginia Tech undergraduate broadened her lens - and ultimately brought her to Virginia Commonwealth University. The Ph.D. candidate, who just defended her dissertation, is graduating this month from the VCU School of Dentistry, though her focus goes deeper than a common cavity. In the school's Philips Institute for Oral Health Research, Lohner has targeted a global malady.

"Periodontal disease is a devastating disease for most of the world," Lohner said, including in the U.S.: Almost half of American adults have some form of the disease, which can lead to bone recession, tooth loss and a host of medical issues that many patients may not associate with oral health.

Lohner's doctoral degree includes a concentration in infection and immunology. Her research has centered on the role of inflammation in the periodontal area, which supports and surrounds the teeth and includes the gums, jawbone and other elements.

"There's a lot of promise in finding ways to combat this chronic inflammation, and not just in the oral cavity," Lohner said. "If you can target inflammation in one area, it usually can apply to other areas of the body as well. Periodontal research is not just focused on the mouth. It can focus on lots of other places, especially since periodontal disease is linked with other chronic systemic diseases like cardiovascular disease and rheumatoid arthritis. One little area in your body can influence so many other areas."

After graduating from Virginia Tech in 2015 with a degree related to microbiology, Lohner worked at VCU for four years as a laboratory technician and manager for Pin-Lan Li, M.D., Ph.D., in the School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

"I found that I really loved it and that I had the aptitude for the hands-on experience," she said of her lab and research experience, praising Li for the opportunity.

Lohner initially considered pursuing her studies in biomedical sciences, but she received an email invitation to apply to the Philips Institute.

Hannah Lohner's research in the School of Dentistry has centered on the role of inflammation in the periodontal area. (Vernon Freeman, School of Dentistry)

"At that point, I had no idea that the dental school had a Ph.D. program. I was really interested," Lohner said. "I found out via the Philips Institute website and through my interview that [its work] was a lot more than just teeth and good oral hygiene; it was studying the bacteria that live in your mouth, studying the diseases that can be caused by them and different inflammatory conditions.

"It called to me like, boom! I knew exactly where I wanted to be," Lohner said. "So, I was really excited when I got into this program."

As a student in the lab of associate professor Huizhi Wang, M.D., Ph.D., Lohner has focused her research on the role of a protein, HDAC6, in oral bacteria-mediated periodontal inflammation, including how immune cells interact with bacteria in the mouth. The presence or absence of the protein could play a role in immunology-based treatment for cancers, including oral cancer.

Lohner's promise and achievement as a student researcher was rewarded with an F31 Fellowship Grant from the National Institutes of Health, with funding that totaled nearly $120,000 for her last three years of study.

"I was thrilled to be able to independently fund my own research," she said. "It also gave me confidence to become an independent scientist and to reinforce the idea that science and being a scientist was for me."

Lohner's other honors have included first- and second-place awards in the School of Dentistry's annual research day programs, as well as travel awards that have supported her participation at scientific conferences in Hawaii and Greece.

After this month's graduation, Lohner will continue in Wang's lab through a post-doctoral research fellowship. She also will work in the lab of School of Dentistry Dean Lyndon F. Cooper, D.D.S., Ph.D., focusing on an immunology-based project that targets a bone formation protein.

Amid all the science, Lohner is motivated by the human reality of periodontal disease - that it carries a dramatic impact, and that it demands accessible information.

"A lot of people will experience both economic and aesthetic issues, and they will feel burdened by that," she said.

And noting how the COVID pandemic highlighted the need, Lohner hopes to close the translation gap that can exist for wide audiences.

"Ultimately, I definitely want to be a science communicator, whether that's in the classroom or through a different medium. I would love to write science for the layperson, for them to be able to understand really complicated science," she said. "I would love to be able to be one of the people influencing the way science is communicated to the everyday person."

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